Cyber Racism on Social Media: A Rhetorical Analysis and Policy Proposal for Platform Accountability
Overview
This paper presents a rhetorical analysis examining the prevalence of cyber racism on social media platforms, focusing on overt and covert manifestations of racist content targeting diverse communities. The author argues that social media companies have failed to effectively moderate hateful content despite stated policies against harassment and discrimination, and proposes that these platforms must adopt more rigorous enforcement mechanisms to protect users from racial abuse.
What this essay covers
- Rhetor Perspective: Analysis of the writer's concern about cyber racism prevalence on social media platforms and examples including anti-Asian hate following COVID-19 terminology
- Audience Perspective: Identification of social media companies as primary audience and examination of their inadequate response to racist content moderation
- Policy Analysis: Discussion of the gap between stated company rules against harassment and actual enforcement of content policies
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Rhetorical Analysis and Proposal
Rhetor Perspective
The writer's perspective is based on a concern over the prevalence of cyber racism on social media. Since the emergence of social media as a publicly accessible communication tool, people worldwide have openly expressed their opinions and views. Unfortunately, individuals and groups with radical racist agendas have turned social media into a medium for propagating their ideologies and pursuing their hate targets. It is becoming increasingly difficult to enter into any contemporary social media platform without encountering an image, video, meme, or post that employs racialized difference to humiliate or demean an individual or a group. These messages are often ingrained with humor and present a joking relationship of control between the perpetrator, the target, and the bystanders. This intolerance is often veiled and may ooze unconsciously out of the messages posted on the platforms. It may also forcefully reveal itself in the self-aggrandizing blogs, Tweets, or Facebook pages of individuals whose conceit in their heritage has made them intolerant of other people different from them.
An example of overt cyber racism was the proliferation of hashtags like #ChineseVirus and #WuhanVirus after Trump referred to the contagion as the "Chinese Virus". Racial slurs and profane words were leveled against Asian communities. Even more than a year after the start of the pandemic, Asian Americans continue to face hate on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.